Squid go into space – for the sake of humanity

WHEN NASA's space shuttle Endeavour launched on Monday - the penultimate flight of the shuttle programme - its passengers included a fleet of baby squid.

The first cephalopods to enter space are not going to refresh the astronauts' menu. Rather, they could reveal how "good" bacteria behave in microgravity.

The bobtail squid, Euprymna scolopes, are colonised by light-emitting bacteria soon after the they hatch, making them glow. As New Scientist went to press, the newly hatched orbiting squid were due to encounter these bacteria for the first time in the microgravity of space, and then, days later, be killed. Their bodies will return to Earth for analysis.

Jamie Foster of the University of Florida in Gainesville, who is overseeing the experiment, says Earth-bound experiments have suggested that microgravity might impair squid's ability to host the bacteria. ...

To continue reading this article, subscribe to receive access to all of newscientist.com, including 20 years of archive content.

To continue reading this article, log in or subscribe to New Scientist